The Last Mosque in Tel Aviv, and Other Stories of Disjuncture

Ruins serve as a poignant reminder of loss and destruction. Yet, ruins are not always physical, and they are not always best understood through visual language—the sense memory of loss extends for displaced people far beyond crumbling monuments. Exploring the sonic element of loss and displacement is key to understanding the way people relate to the spaces they have to leave. This article explores the particular disjuncture of staging and commemorating Arabness in Tel Aviv, the “Hebrew City.” The disjuncture of being Arab in Tel Aviv is apparent to any visitor who walks down the beach promenade, and this article examines the main sites of Arab contestation on the border with Jaffa. Most apparent to a visitor is the Hassan Bek Mosque, the most visible Islamic symbol in Tel Aviv; I describe the process of gaining admission as a non-Muslim, and of discussing the painful and indelible memory of 1948 with worshipers. Delving deeper into the affective staging of ruin, I trace Umm Kulthum’s famous concert in Jaffa (officially Palestine at the time), and examine the way her imprint has moved across the troubled urban border of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. A ruins-based analysis of the urban sites of disjuncture in Tel Aviv, therefore, offers a glimpse into underground sonic subcultures that hide in plain sight

Citizen Azmari: Making Ethiopian Music in Tel Aviv

In the thirty years since their immigration from Ethiopia to the State of Israel, Ethiopian-Israelis have put music at the center of communal and public life, using it alternatingly as a mechanism of protest and as appeal for integration. Ethiopian music develops in quiet corners of urban Israel as the most prominent advocate for equality, and the Israeli-born generation is creating new musical styles that negotiate the terms of blackness outside of Africa. For the first time, this book examines in detail those new genres of Ethiopian-Israeli music, including Ethiopian-Israeli hip-hop, Ethio-soul performed across Europe, and eskesta dance projects at the center of national festivals. This book argues that in a climate where Ethiopian-Israelis fight for recognition of their contribution to society, musical style often takes the place of political speech, and musicians take on outsize roles as cultural critics. From their perch in Tel Aviv, Ethiopian-Israeli musicians use musical style to critique a social hierarchy that affects life for everyone in Israel/Palestine

Moroccan Torah Scrolls: Theorizing a Diasporic Afterlife

Torah scrolls are more than ritual objects; when used in a congregation, they take on semi-human characteristics and are given special agency. For Sephardic communities, some scrolls bear witness to the history of migration and trade that has uprooted them over five centuries. This article examines Torah scrolls originating in Morocco or used today by Moroccan communities, arguing that they take on a different meaning for the community depending on whether they are used, displayed, or guarded. We consider the difference in social meaning between chanting from a scroll and venerating it, and how Moroccan Jewry is impacted by efforts in Morocco, Israel, and the diaspora to ascribe ownership of the Torah via networks of patrimony and belonging. Offering an ethnographically informed analysis of Torah scrolls in London, Essaouira, and Tel Aviv, this article demonstrates that Torah scrolls serve as productive members of the communities that own them when they facilitate a thorough understanding of the migration networks that create communities

'Tezeta' (Nostalgia): Memory and Loss in Ethiopia and the Diaspora

In an imagined canon of Ethiopian songs, the undisputed top position goes to “Tezeta,” a song that evokes feelings of sadness and affection for country, friends, and relations. The song’s performance practice has changed over time as Ethiopian musicians moved from the countryside to the city, and eventually abroad. Until the 1970s, rural Azmaris (folk-poets) performed “Tezeta” on local stringed instru - ments. In the 1970s, it emerged as the preeminent Ethiojazz standard performed on bass guitars and saxophones by Ethiojazz artists. Today “Tezeta” remains a favorite at home while earning special status across the Ethiopian diaspora among migrants who preserve and experiment with it, sampling it in rap songs and adapting the main themes into local languages and musical vernaculars. The song evokes potent nostalgia for the homeland through a lovesick lament in which Ethiopia is subtly personified. Close analysis and mapping of the multitude of “Tezeta” recordings and adaptations explains how trends in Ethiopian music follow the changes in identity and affiliation wrought by 40 years of migratory upheaval